Once Giulia's things were all packed up, Luca, who had sat on the bleachers not too long after Giulia started her soccer practice, went up to her to start walking home. Passing by, he saw Luna from afar and subtly waved to her, no words exchanged. Luna waved back. Giulia noticed them wave to each other when Luca got closer. She looked between the two and Luna quickly turned away from Giulia's gaze.
"Wanna get going?" Luca asked. "I...got some news."
"Yeah… let's go," Giulia said, still looking at Luna as she started to walk along with him.
Luca had told Giulia his news about him now having to tutor Alberto. Giulia couldn't believe it.
"Santa crescenza! You actually agreed to it?" Giulia asked, shocked at her friend's news.
"Well, I don't want to be the cause of someone failing a grade. It'd eat at my conscience forever."
"Luca, it's his fault for not paying attention in class last year. His actions are not your responsibility. You sure you're up for doing this? It could be exhausting. What if he doesn't even try? You can't help someone who doesn't try" Giulia reasoned.
"It might not be that bad. I mean, he and I have interacted before and have had some conversations here and there."
"Really? Conversations about what?" asked Giulia.
Luca started to internally panic when she asked that. The longest, real conversation they had was when their sea creature forms were revealed to one another and talking about how to change at will. But he couldn't let her know about that yet, if at all. So he settled for one of their shorter conversations. If he could even count that.
"Just about art. He is in my art class after all...he's actually really good at drawing." Luca had to admit that but he'd never let Alberto knew he thought that about him. He'd just make fun of him.
"Really? Huh…" Giulia seemed to accept that answer. "Well, if you say so."
Scorfano household later that day
Alberto was sulking in his room, laying on his bed. He was thinking about how Luca had blown him off after art class. True, them talking about their encounter in the darkroom the other day wasn't at all planned, nor did Luca agree to do so but Alberto had assumed that- Ugh...he felt so stupid. He had to face it. He had forced Luca into the darkroom with him. Luca clearly wanted nothing to do with him. They were just too different. Them both being sea creatures had changed nothing between them.
*RING* *RING*
The phone rang for another few minutes until...
"Hey! Answer the damn phone!" Alberto heard his father order from downstairs.
Alberto sighed and rolled his eyes, forcing himself to get up from his bed. He left his room and went to where the phone resided. He answered it.
"Yeah?" he answered emotionlessly.
"Ah, Alberto, it's Signora Marsigliese. I'm calling about your new tutor." she answered back.
"What? Guido actually agreed to do it?" Alberto found that hard to believe.
"Oh, it isn't Guido. He refused."
'Yep, knew it. ' Alberto thought to himself.
"He said he didn't want a lot on his plate. But we found a replacement. His name is Luca Paguro."
Alberto had almost dropped the phone. No way…
"He's in the ninth grade but very bright for his age. Though, you may already know him. He seemed to know you ."
"We have a class together..." Alberto said back, still shocked at this new development.
"Well, he is going to be your tutor. Luca has agreed on a time. He wants to meet in the library after school tomorrow. Non fare tardi! Capiche?" She warned.
Alberto didn't care for her pushy tone. "You got it…" he said loosely, now having mentally gained back his 'cool' exterior to some extent.
They both hung up.
Before Alberto let out a breath Bruno had suddenly appeared, breaking the silence in the room, "Who was it?"
Alberto turned around in surprise. "Uh…"
Alberto knew it was stupid to care but he didn't want Bruno knowing that he was a total idiot that had to get help in a class. It didn't matter what class. He just didn't want Bruno to think he was weak and stupid. Alberto usually didn't give a shit about what Bruno thought but, nowadays, Bruno and the rest of the gang somehow made him care. Lately the more and more he was around them the more he wanted to prove himself to them. He hated them but impressing them made him feel superior in a way. He never used to give in to peer pressure so why was he giving into it now? Alberto hated feeling like he had no control.
"Eh, just some girl that's probably into me." Alberto lied.
Bruno smirked at that. "Oh yeah? You a lady's man at school now?"
Alberto leaned against the wall casually. "Well, It's whatever. You know how it is."
"Ah, yes, I do. I was quite the lady killer in my youth." Bruno said as he reached the top of the stairs, now leaning on the stair railing across from Alberto. "Had sea monster girls and human girls wanting a piece of me," he boasted.
Bruno was quite taller than Alberto, making Alberto have to look up at him, making him feel small and intimidated. He always felt uneasy when Bruno was less than 6 inches away from him. Alberto had vowed to never let Bruno see he had that effect on him but, somehow, Alberto guessed he probably already knew.
" That's great, Bruno …" Alberto replied with disinterest.
Bruno didn't seem to pick up on his tone and continued. "I remember, for shits and giggles, I'd sometimes lead on the human girls that practically threw themselves at me. Make them think they had a chance with me. They were entertaining to me enough for a good fling. Something to pass the time."
Alberto had stayed silent, his eyes looking down at the floor away from Bruno. He was starting to feel uncomfortable. Alberto had never talked about girls with him before and now he wished it had stayed that way. He didn't want to hear this.
"Taught me that human girls are utterly stupid and pathetic. Now, of course, being a sea monster, your mother was different." he reminisced. "Now, she was genuine entertainment. Thought she could control me, that one. So cute. I loved that about her."
Alberto's eyes slowly looked up from the floor to Bruno. He couldn't tell if Bruno was complementing or mocking his deceased wife. Either way, Bruno had no right to talk about his mother in front of him.
"Thank god I found her though. It got me you." Bruno put nonchalantly, no fondness to be heard in his tone. "Don't know what I would've done without my sea monster, let's say, heir." he chuckled.
That was all he was to him. Of course. Alberto had to get away before he lost control of his temper. "Yeah, okay, Bruno." He started to walk away to return to his room.
"Alberto!" Bruno called after him, slightly raising his voice. Alberto stopped but didn't turn to look at him. "If that girl on the phone is human. Do what you want with her if you decide to 'have some fun', but I'm warning you, don't do anything stupid. I don't want some half-breed offspring in this family."
"Right..." with that, Alberto proceeded to head toward his room.
Once there, he closed his door and leaned against it. All of that was too much to process in one sitting. Alberto felt like throwing up. His theory of Bruno only caring about him in the sense of being ' next in line ' had been confirmed. His other theory of Bruno never really loving his mother was still blurry in confirmation but what Bruno had said about her had been disheartening to hear. Alberto wanted to be wrong about that so badly. Another thing that had him on edge was, he knew Bruno hated humans, but he didn't think he had treated human girls that way. He wished he went on with his life being oblivious to that knowledge.
That conversation could've been avoided if he hadn't been such a coward. He never wanted to discuss his future love life, if he even wanted one, with Bruno. It seemed to Alberto that Bruno expected him to mate with a sea creature woman in the future, whether he loved said sea creature or not just so this Scorpion charade could continue. Love clearly didn't matter to Bruno. Not that Alberto even knew what being in love felt like. He had never even thought about being in a relationship with a girl, let alone 'breeding ' with one. It made him feel uncomfortable and unprepared for what Bruno wanted out of him.
All of this almost made Alberto forget that Luca had agreed to tutor him. He couldn't believe it. He thought Luca couldn't stand him. He had no idea what Signora Marsigliese could've said to make Luca agree to it but he didn't care. If he was honest with himself, he was now extremely eager to learn something now that Luca was going to be part of the deal. He chuckled just imagining it. Luca would be trying to teach him math while Alberto would torture him with constant teasing and he'd get to see Luca's adorable pouting face more often. Not only that, they'd finally be able to address them both being sea creatures and talk more about Luca's changing-at-will ability that he was interested in learning
Alberto walked to his bed and laid down with his head resting on his arms. He closed his eyes to relax. Luca's big magnified brown eyes appeared in his head. Eyes that made him feel things he couldn't exactly describe. Nevertheless, Alberto was looking forward to tomorrow.
4:00 at the Marcovaldo residence
Giulia had just come out of the shower, she was still in her towel and had another towel wrapped around her wet hair. Her sweat from soccer practice was now washed away.
She couldn't seem to get Luna's distancing out of her head. It was driving her crazy that she didn't know the reasoning behind it. It being her fault had constantly popped into her head as a possibility. It made her head hurt.
It was almost time for her outing with Guido. She was looking forward to hanging out and to enjoying some gelato. It'd be a welcoming distraction from everything with Luna going on.
*RING* *RING*
Giulia heard the phone in the hall go off, breaking her out of the drama that was her thoughts. She heard her father answer it. Giulia thought nothing of who might be calling and went to her closet to pick out something to wear.
"Giulietta! The phone is for you!" she heard Massimo call out.
"Scendo tra un minuto, Papa!" Giulia replied. She quickly put on her blue housecoat and left her room for the phone.
Massimo handed her the phone and she put it to her ear. "Hello?"
"Um… Hey, Giulia. It's Luna."
Giulia's eyeballs felt like they almost came out of their sockets. "Luna? You- I- you're calling me?" she asked in disbelief.
There was silence on the other line, Giulia only hearing Luna's quiet breathing. Giulia cursed in her mind. That was a really weird thing to say. "I mean...Uh, hey. What's up?"
"Well, I just figured that I've got your number and all and I thought I'd call you," Luna replied awkwardly.
"Um, cool…" Giulia didn't know what to say after the way Luna had been acting. She heard Luna take a deep breath before speaking.
"I...I just wanted to say that I'm sorry if I seemed weird today. I'm sure I wasn't at all subtle with my distancing. I've been finding myself not knowing the meaning of 'subtlety' lately. Suffice to say, that fact has been screwing me over quite a bit." Luna admitted, chuckling lightly.
"I see…"
"What I'm saying is that I don't want you thinking that it's your fault in any way. It isn't, I'm just weird, okay?" Luna assured her.
Giulia let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, that's great! Thanks for letting me know."
"Yep...I've just been going through a lot of things and I've been trying to process those things in my head and I think I got it figured out the best I can. Bottom line is, it won't happen again. Things will be back to normal tomorrow, I promise. If you still want me around that is..."
"Oh, I still want you around 100%! Water under the bridge!"
"Thank goodness." Giulia could almost hear the relief in Luna's voice. "Well, I hope, if you want to, we could do something together outside of school sometime."
"Really?" Giulia asked in excitement. "Well, hey, I'm going out for gelatos with Guido in an hour. Would you like to come with?"
"Y-you sure? I wouldn't want to impose…" Luna said, unsure.
"Nah, you won't be imposing. I'm sure Guido won't mind. He's cool. We're all friends here." Giulia said, waving her free hand, writing off Luna's paranoia.
"Well, if you insist," Luna said.
"Certo. It's fine." Giulia then told Luna where to meet Guido. Then they said goodbye and hung up.
After that call, Giulia was even more excited about the outing. That one phone call had made all her problems disappear within almost a minute.
Giulia quickly ran back to her room to get dressed. She grabbed out a multicoloured long-sleeved turtle neck, striped horizontally. The stripes consisting of the colours aqua, purple and neon green. She then grabbed a purple button-up jumper dress with a round neckline. The jumper went down to her knees, and it had a belt that went with it with a tiny silver belt buckle. She wore neon green cuffed shorts underneath the jumper that had a purple criss-cross pattern on them, matching her turtle neck.
With the whole outfit on, she went up to her mirror, looking at herself. Sure, the outfit was very flashy with its neon colours but Giulia loved bright colours and she didn't care what others thought of how she dressed. She was an underdog and she was proud to dress the part. She left her room, putting on matching purple converse shoes before saying bye to Massimo and then heading out.
5:00 at Latterio San Giorgio (the gelato place)
Guido had gotten to the gelato place first, waiting outside for Giulia to arrive, his hands together resting behind him.
He had on a navy blue shirt with an Italian spread collar and a long-sleeved sweater that was blueberry-coloured with amaranth, navy blue and white stripes in the middle overtop and dark blue jeans. Lastly, he wore simple black runners on his feet.
He also had had a shower before coming. He of course didn't want to smell like sweat in front of Giulia. To go the extra mile, he had on cologne that he borrowed from his dad. He hoped the smell wasn't too strong. He didn't want to scare Giulia off.
He checked his watch. It read 5:03. She should be showing up any second. Then in the corner of his eye, on the sidewalk he was on, he spotted two figures coming towards him. He turned his head fully to face them. It was Giulia...but she had company. Luna was walking beside her, looking intently at Giulia, listening to whatever it was she was talking about.
Guido did not expect this in the slightest since he was wanting it to just be the two of them. He mentally slapped himself, angry for not being specific that he wanted it to just be the two of them. No one else. At least Giulia came. He was thankful for that, though he doubted Giulia would stand him up. She didn't come across as that type of person.
Guido had come into Giulia's line of sight and waved to him.
"Ciao, Guido! I invited Luna to join us." Giulia said excitedly.
"I hope you don't mind," Luna said sheepishly.
Luna had suspected that Guido probably didn't want her on their outing. When she overheard him ask her to 'hang out' it sounded like a date to her. She just wasn't completely sure about that theory. Looking at him now, Luna could sense for sure, that Guido was faking his smile. He was just being polite clearly for Giulia's sake. Giulia was just too much in a chipper mood to notice Guido's disdain for her accidental sabotaging of their 'date?'. Now, despite knowing this was a possibility prior, Luna should have said no to Giulia's invite just in case her theory was correct, but, for some reason that she couldn't put her finger on, she agreed to come anyway. Now Luna just felt selfish.
Guido got a better look at their outfits when they came closer. He liked Giulia's bright outfit. It suited her. He wanted to say she looked nice but Luna was there as well so he figured he'd be polite and complaint them both at the same time. He really wanted to not make it obvious that he had different expectations for how he had wanted their outing to go.
"You two look nice," he said casually.
Luna had on a black elbow-length sleeved turtle neck and a magenta pencil skirt with black pantyhose and black army boots. She also wore a silver necklace that was layered with its chains and it had a small pearl dangling from the bottom chain.
"Thanks." Giulia thanked him.
"Yeah, thanks." Luna said after.
Guido sighed at his misfortune. Considering how close Giulia and Luna seemed to be, he knew he was going to feel like some kind of third wheel once again.
"Well, let's get inside and buy some gelatos, shall we?" He was going to try to not let the change in his plans phase him too much.
"Omigosh, yes! I'm starved!" Giulia then grabbed both Luna and Guido by their hands, to the two teens' surprise, and pulled them along behind her, entering the store. Both Luna and Guido blushed at the sudden action.
(A/N) Dang, all these phone calls. Poor 70's high school kids with them not having the power of text messaging.
Man, it's so much fun writing Alberto's parts. It's so cute that he thinks he's straight pretending an imaginary girl likes him. Haven't touched upon him and his home life in a hot minute. It's so angsty. And I like writing angst. That should tell you guys what you're in for reading this fanfic. *laughs sinisterly*
If you're wondering why I chose the colours I did for Giulia's outfit it was a fun way to represent a few of Luca and Alberto's sea monster colours. I wanted to do it as a nod to her boys.
Luna's outfit is simple and has dark colours because she is a closed-off type of person so she doesn't quite branch out on her style of clothes as Giulia does. Also, she had a pearl on her necklace because sea creature.
But anyway, love triangles am I right? Gotta love Giulia's lack of awareness of the situation she accidentally created. She's so oblivious. XD